Scott heard a
muffled scream cut off from far off in the darkness. From out of the shadows
near Don's right shoulder Dog appeared with the sudden speed of a match struck
in the darkness. Don looked the big dog in the eyes and Dog communicated with
low whines and prancing. “The boys are in trouble! Justin has been taken by
something. Wolf is looking for him,” Don made a low sound in his throat. “I'm
going back with Dog taking the shadow-path. Angel, you bring the rest as fast
as you safely can.
Don took two steps
and before his foot came down the second time he and Dog faded into the
shadows. The shadow-path was a weird world unto itself. No time passed in the
real world and the distance between the two points was not dependent upon the
physical distance in the real world. In this case it was ten quick steps
through the flat cracked plain of the shadow-path. A creature that haunted the
path attempted to hold the two, whether for a toll or to attack Don never knew
because Dog's red eyes blazed with fury at the attempted delay and slashed with
one snap of its great jaws. The shadowling shrieked like a damned soul and fell
back dead or dying.
Dog had warned Don
of the nature of the trap laid for the unwary traveler. The center of the trap
was a lightning blasted oak with webs of magic laid out in a complex pattern.
The pattern served two purposes. It was an effective way to waylay travelers
and it also constituted a nested network of black magic. It had been years
since the lightning struck and the brambles grew up and in all that time
something horrible had been laying webs of spells like a malevolent spider all
around the little copse.
************* **************** ***************
A fighting knife
appeared as if by magic in Andy's hand certainly one of Dodge's reflexes.
“Okay, you nasty piece of work. Let's see how to weave my way through there.”
Dodge had a near
perfect memory and instinct for where to place his feet and how to move but he
was already caught in the web. Could he get himself out? And could he do it in
time to save his friend?
Andy began careful
steps avoiding the tendrils of magic that were strung across the area moving
towards the stump.
“Stop,” a voice
commanded him and Andy would have jumped out of his skin but Dodge's reflexes
kept him carefully in place. It was his Granddad Don with Dog next to his side.
“This is what we
do,” Don said soothingly. He had his dragon horn bow in his left hand with an
arrow nocked and ready to shoot. The cover was back from the quiver exposing
the red fletching and sheep-horn nocks on the arrows, “The rest are coming fast
as they can. Where's Riddick?”
Andy realized he
had lost sight of the wolf while he was in the trap, “I don't know. Trapped in
here maybe? Maybe he's gone inside the stump after Justin.”
“So it was Justin
we heard,” Don replied. “Okay, we'll pick up Riddick along the way or Angel
will find him when she gets here. I made a quick and dirty shift through the
shadows here following one of the Hag's trail she has left. The rest of us are
following Angel here.”
“A hag?” Andy
asked, “I thought they were water creatures. Every once in a while one would
sneak in under Riverton and grab kids until somebody killed it. If it eats kids
why did it lure in Justin?”
“Two reasons at a
guess,” Don replied quietly as he navigated towards the stump pointing out
where to step for Andy as they went. Dog
had disappeared but Don appeared unconcerned.
“First is that she's hungry. Hags are always hungry. Second, Justin is a kid
and so are you where it matters. You guys must look like a smorgasbord to the
hag or hags. You never know how many you're going get in a nest like this.
They're out in the middle of nowhere they have to make do with whatever comes
along. And they need to hide from big groups like the Tuathe De or even a
Traveler caravan. Half Orcs sometimes roam through here in raiding parties or
fleeing their endless tribal wars and maybe a goblin troop every decade or so
but I guess they ambush animals most of the time or lone travelers going to the
Chapterhouse or on their way to Bridgetown.”
“Oh, so we really
stepped in it,” Andy said subdued. He was scared but determined not to show it.
“Just hags?” he asked hopefully.
“Nope, we better
keep our eyes peeled for other critters,” Don replied, "Ogres for sure at least one of them and something I've
never seen before. Something small and quick that goes on both two legs and
four when convenient. They have long claws or talons.”
“Of course they
do,” Andy replied quietly. “Yeah, sure. I lived with you guys in camp too long.
I forgot how these things go.”
“It's the same
number of predator to prey ratio as in the real world,” Don replied, “It's just
that there are still predators here that prey on humans.
“Now we need to be
quiet,” Don said in a hushed voice. Nothing carried quite like a whisper so
both avoided it.
“Dog,” said
Don almost silently and the big white dog seemed to form out of the darkness at
Andy's elbow then melted into the shadows as they approached the tangled
brambles around the stump.
Andy pulled
another knife in his off hand holding it with the flat alongside his arm. His
other knife was held low so as not to catch the light.
A shape like a
large child clad in cast off rags pounced from the darkness at Andy and he
shifted his weight to avoid the spider-like arms with black iron claws at the
end of each finger. The creature scored a line along the edge of Andy's leather
armor slicing deep and catching the tunic beneath. He could feel the cold as
the rents in his armor let in the night air.
When the beast
attacked it was as if a signal because it began shrieking like a demented
monkey and its voice was joined by others in the darkness near them. As it
slashed at him, Andy instinctively stabbed upwards into the creature's groin
and hammered a series of quick stabs in the exposed armpit of the ragged
attacker.
Andy couldn't get a
look at its face as it was hidden in shadow by a shock of tangled and matted
hair. Only the eyes were gleaming in the shadows. However, the strikes were
telling as the creature launched another attack trying to spread both arms wide
but was unable to lift one arm and stumbled into the brambles at Andy's feet.
Andy finished him with a quick stab to the heart beneath the rib cage. At that
Andy began to feel a thin trickle of blood where the razor sharp claws had just
sliced his skin and the wounds began to sting.
When Andy was
attacked two other ragged iron-clawed scarecrows had attacked Dog and another
attacked Don. Don loosed his first arrow towards the one attacking him striking
it in the eye with the sound of a mallet driving a spike into a wooden block.
He fired twice more in three seconds pinning the first scarecrow attacking Dog
through the neck and center torso without pause to aim.
Riddick appeared
from out of the shadows and between Dog and the wolf they tore the other
shrieking monster to shreds. Between the two of them an arm and a leg both were
ripped free.
“Oh, God!” Andy
breathed too wound up to scream. “What are these things, Granddad? Are they
goblins? I want to go home!” Andy was a pre-teen boy who had just killed
something up-close and personal with a pair of razor sharp knives.
“It's okay,” Don
told him, “Keep your eyes open but just breathe. You'll be okay.” Don knelt
with his left hand holding his bow with a nocked arrow and quickly examined the
creature he had shot through the eye.
“No, not goblins.
Not even something related. It's a Hagboy,” Don explained, “they're the
children of the Hags. You don't want to know how they're conceived.”
“What?” Andy was
young and Dodge was still a teenager without any kind of formal education.
“Never mind,” Don
said soothingly, “These are dead but there might be more.”
“Oh please, I want
to go home!” Andy said plaintively.
“You want me to
have Dog take you back to the Tuathe De camp?” Don asked, “He could do that
pretty quickly.”
Andy thought of
his friend in the hands of something worse than whatever it was that he had
just killed. He paused for a few seconds then he answered he was shaking a
little but his voice was clear and firm, “No, we'll get him out of this. I got
him into this.”
“Good boy,” Don
said encouragingly, “Let's move closer but follow where Dog and I lead.”
Riddick came up
and nudged Andy's hand avoiding the knife then joined Dog as they quartered the
area in a searching pattern. Both Don and Andy were quieter than the wind
through the tall grass as they slipped towards the stump. Don trusted Dog to
watch for traps and kept his own vision on the edge and behind without stopping
to focus on anything searching for patterns and motion. Andy was watching their
path more closely for physical traps and used his stone again. “I think they
know we're here.”
************* ************** ***************
Angel was worried
the distance was exactly wrong. Too far to run quickly but it would take longer
to saddle the horses and ride there as it would to simply run. Then Michelle
stood and gave a piercing whistle. A paladin's mount was unlike any other horse
and they had a special bond. The mount was always there for the paladin when
needed. In this case a greater magic or power was watching for them as all
of their horses. Michelle's steed, Graywind,
arrived with all of the horses saddled and ready to ride. Michelle leapt into
the saddle and leaned forward giving Graywind free-rein and urged him to
greater speed. The stallion appeared as an exemplary specimen of a Tuathe De
charger. He was a shimmering silver dun with black mane and flowing tail.
Graywind was far more than that however. He was intelligent, swift, and utterly
fearless. Michelle led the charge across the moonlit grassland at a gallop
trusting Graywind's instincts and vision.
Michelle drew her
long-hafted halberd from the socket on her saddle and bent over Graywind's neck
urging him to greater speed, “Come on, boy,” she coaxed him as she slackened
the reins more to give him the freedom to run.
Scott watched
Michelle pull out ahead of the rest of them passing their guide Angel. He
wanted to call her back but the boys were in danger and he wanted help to get
there as soon as possible. Angel was
about to call a warning to Michelle when Michelle rose up in her stirrups
raising both arms above her in a 'V' the halberd pointing towards the sky. She
shouted a command, “Dia Uachtanna sé!”
The curving blade
of the weapon glowed like a second sun for a long moment throwing a wave of
light and force forward in an arc towards the blasted thicket. Everything stood
in stark relief as if illuminated in a klieg light for a second or two. A
massed shriek came from a dozen throats and great roaring in pain from others.
The light exposed the scarecrow like hagboys who as one flinched from the light
most falling to the ground and all covering their eyes and cowering. It also
illuminated two great ogres who had been hiding camouflaged by magic. Those
giant monsters covered their eyes but were enraged rather than seriously hurt
as were the hagboys.
Angel sent an
arrow winging forward every time her horse was at the peak of its gallop where
all four feet were off the ground. The timed shots came every second or so and
were accurate as if she were sitting on the horse standing stock still.
Before his horse
came to a stop, Allan launched himself feet first from the back of his horse
planting a kick with both feet in the pit of the nearest ogre's abdomen. Allan
carried a spiked steel shield with his bottom left hand, a spiked axe above it,
on his right Allan had a spiked steel gauntlet on his lower right hand and a
short spear with his upper right hand. Allan had struck with the axe, and spear
before the ogre struck the ground stuffing his steel sheathed fist into the
gaping maw breaking teeth before driving the edge of his steel shield down into
the flat bridge of ogre's ape-like nose crushing down into both eye sockets.
The ogre roared in pain before the axe whirled up and back down taking the head
off in one blow.
Katie began
playing an enchanting tune that further confused and beleaguer the already
dazed hagboys. The scarecrow creatures began swaying in place, their limbs
moving like a man drowning, while looking about with a dull look in the flinty
little eyes. The same song encouraged her companions who went through the
confused hagboys with the competent air of a farm wife killing chickens.
A hag all long
hair and iron talons half again the height of a tall man sprang out of a tangled
bramble right at Shandra in the saddle. Shandra dropped over the opposite side
and both sets of razor like claws sliced through the air where she had been
sitting. One long talon sheared off a length of Shandra's reins just below
where her hand had been holding the leather.
The hag twisted to
her feet with the speed of a viper to be met by the golden sheen of Shandra's
blade. Shandra sliced and sprang to her left sweeping the blade along the
inside of the hag's long arm. The arm dropped to the grass and black blood
fountained in the moonlight. The talons flashed again and were met by the long
two-handed weapon. It sheared through the wrist and back across leaving a
bloody stump and the hag's head went bouncing through the grass.
The second ogre
came bellowing in pain out of the thicket and squared up with Scott. Scott's steel teeth flashed in a tiger's grin as he went to work on the giant creature. Two
quick kicks drove the ogre to his knees snapping both bones in the lower leg on
one side leaving the ogre's leg flopping like the end of a flail. It fell to
one knee leaving it a head taller than Scott.
Sean released the
flail head and chain from his staff whirling it with a vicious wasp-whine
before it smashed across the back of the ogre crushing its kidneys on both
sides with a crack as vertebrae snapped. “Deus VULT!” Sean cried as he threshed
the back of the ogre, clockwise then counter clockwise as the steel flail
rebounded. The ogre ducked with pain its back hunched. The last sound it made
was a cavernous gasp of agony cut short by Scott's armored elbow smashing the
arc of its jaws on both sides top and bottom. The head spun popping bones in
the barrel thick neck.
Scott saw Don and
Andy at the edge of the oak tree and waited until Don gave him the 'all clear'
sign before cautiously approaching. “What's happened here?” Scott wasted no
time.
“Hags' nest,” Don
replied. “One of them has grabbed Justin. I'm going in to get him out.”
“Okay, I'm with
you,” Scott replied, “Shandra, Allan you watch our backs here with Katie, Andy
and Angel.”
“Sean, Michelle,
you have the power to defeat their sorcery and witchcraft. We'll need you on the inside.”
“I'm coming too,”
Andy added, “You need somebody to spot traps and disarm them and I am the best.
Justin's down there somewhere and it's my fault.”
Scott thought for
a moment then nodded, “You're right. I don't like it but you're right.”
Michelle opened
her mouth to protest then shut it and nodded before continuing, “Agreed but
Don, then Andy. You'll just have to look past Granddad. He can spot traps too.
He was Captain of the Elven Queen's Guides and is a Shadow-Warden. He's not as
good at it as you are but I'm not putting you out there first.”
Scott nodded, “I'm
next then you. Sean brings up the rear.”
“I need a full
fist of Zwerg guardsmen,” Scott said.
“Or a company of
Guides,” Don added.
“Or a lance of
Paladins,” Michelle replied.
“Or an Order troop
of Brothers,” Sean put in his wish.
“Might as well
wish for an Imperial Legion with an auxiliary of Church warrior monks,” Scott
finished "But we have what we have
and that's not nothing. We're not just an old cop a bus driver and a Sailor and
a Marine. By itself that would be something. But we're much more than that.
We've done this before.”
They contemplated
the lightning-blasted oak and the big black crack in the side gaping like a
dragon's jaws. Waiting wouldn't make it better.
Don nodded, “Okay,
Dog,” he called and the big white beast slipped quietly into the crack.
Michelle closed her eyes for a second and a wan golden light came from the
cross on the front of her helm. Sean nodded moving his lips and a similar light
started from in a halo around the top of his own helm.
Don cased his bow
and arrow and drew his knife and tomahawk from his belt following Dog closely
through the crack, “It goes down fast. Watch your feet.”
The interior of
the tree went from burnt wood to hard packed dirt quickly and within a single
step Don could smell the rotting blood and unclean stench of the hags' den
hidden from the outside by magic. Andy came behind and paused to gather his
bearings before moving on. Both he and Don were outlined by the light behind
them in dim lit silhouettes but it was clear that there was already an eerie
light coming from algae dripping from the walls. The walls were bare dirt with
thin trickles of algae, rootlets winding their way down and deeply scored
marks. The tunnel quickly grew wider, wide enough for an Ogre to walk hunched
over. Hags could be quite tall with long bony arms and legs. Ogres were thicker
but could maneuver through tight caverns some could change their shapes at will
to allow them to get into and out of tight areas.
Scott saw Don
scanning the walls, ceiling and floor for sign and tracks while Andy watched
for traps. Scott was watching both of them. He was not surprised but still
pleased at how well he could see in the dark tunnel. Side tunnels opened to
either side and they passed them with the precision of a military close
quarters battle squad. One or two covered the side passage until all of them were
safely past. The trail kept leading straight into the ground a rough scratching
came from the rear and Scott could hear Sean spin and the flail whirl with a
crash of chain and the sound of an iron billet striking a water filled gourd.
Scott smelled the rotting pus stench of a giant spider and felt the back of his
legs lightly spattered with a gooey liquid. Michelle spun on her heels and
stabbed backwards skewering a leaping shape in the blackness. The dog-sized
spider was caught on the broad halberd blade and Michelle brought it down
slicing through the rest of the spider's body.
Sean made a
disgusted sound low in his throat as he wiped the goo from his face.
Michelle put one
hand gently on Sean's shoulder giving him a squeeze and they turned back to the
trail.
They continued for
another minute or two and Andy made a low sound causing Dog and Don to stop.
When he had their attention Andy pointed to a spot on the ceiling that Dog had
already passed. Don kicked himself for not seeing it first. It was a false spot cleverly concealed with magic and natural
skill. Don looked at Dog and made a fist then flattened his hand very slowly
then pointed behind Dog with his chin. The dog sank carefully and backed up a
couple steps away from the trapdoor.
Don had his tomahawk
and fighting knife out. There was little room for archery. He started to back up and to the side when
the trap sprang and a wave of darts shot from the spider hole first. Dog and
Don leapt backward and to the side as Andy went the other direction to the
right. Their weapons flickered in their hands like silver flames in the
darkness batting the darts out of the air with metallic --tings--. Behind them
Scott snatched a dart out of the air before tossing it to the side.
Swinging out of
the hidden spider-hole like monkeys swarming out of a tree came a trio of
hagboys. The trio drove at Don and Andy. Don had his hands full keeping the
razor sharp talons out of his flesh as well as their snapping teeth. Andy kept
one of them back with feints of his daggers. Sean said something forcefully in
a magical tongue and two of the creatures dropped their limbs wrapped around
their torso like a dying spider.
Dog jumped on the
back of the third scarecrow and crushed the bones in its neck with a single
snap. Scott stepped forward and stamped on the head of one of the curled up
hagboys while Michelle sliced the head off the other.
“I didn't think
you'd be able to use that in here,” Scott said quietly to Michelle nodding at
her halberd while Don and Andy checked each other for a missed dart.
“Corpse Tongue,”
Andy said sniffing one of the darts. “Nasty stuff.”
“I didn't expect
them to greet us with scones and tea,” Michelle replied equally quietly.
They continued
down finally turning into a broadening pathway to the right when a shriek of
pain came out of the darkness down the tunnel. Andy jumped forward, “It's
Justin!”
******** ***************** *****************
Justin felt a hand
stinking like a week old corpse and hard as an iron framed saddle clapped
across his mouth while several pairs of arms pinned his hands to prevent Justin
from casting any simple spell that required merely a gesture or a single
syllable. The hagboys were horrific by themselves but the hag was infinitely
worse.
She or it. Kantrus had heard whispered rumors and
read half-forgotten lore of the ancient evil called "Hags" by men. Rumors that spoke of evil existing
before man, before the gods, before light itself that had clung to survival in
secret in the dark places between realities. Evil beyond what mere mortals or
even demonic forces could understand and to truly understand meant madness then
death but the lore hinted that perhaps death was better than knowing.
In the dim
half-light the hag was at least seven feet tall with black eyes that wept black
pitch like fluid. The rest of her face was hidden by the shadows and her filthy
hair through which only the shining gleam of her steely teeth could be seen and
the horror of her eyes. The hair was down to her knees in back and tangled into
nasty dreadlocks like streamers matted with sticks, dirt, and crawling with
vermin. The hag tore a filthy strip from her loincloth and stuffed it into
Justin's mouth then the hagboys bound his limbs with ropes made from twisted
cedar roots.
“A tasty treat to
be sure,” cooed the hag. "But we
need more and to share," she added.
The hagboys
gibbered with imbecilic joy at their mistress' words. Justin was rushed down
the twisting dimly lit tunnels carried by the hag. Justin figured she didn't
trust the hagboys with fresh meat.
“Oh,
this one will hang in the corner nicely,” the hag muttered to herself. Justin
became aware of a blasphemous chanting and shut it out with prayers of his own
rather than surrender his sanity to the monstrous half-heard whispers and
tittering of the hag and her slave spawn. The steel taloned monster shoved
Justin head-first into a woven sack and he could feel the magical wards and
restraints on his own movement and magic. Foul necromancies had gone into
weaving the sack holding him. Justin could smell and feel the fear and despair
of the children that had been imprisoned in the sack before him. The hagboys
began beating the outside of the sack both to amuse themselves and to disorient
Justin to prevent him from focusing to use his magic. Justin hung on grimly and
was determined to chant a spell as soon as he was able. However, he thought
ruefully to himself that if they kept up their beating he might not be in any
shape to cast a spell when the hagboys finished with him, assuming they ever
tired of their "play."
an old lullaby that his elven mother had sung to him centuries before. In his
memories her face looked like his adopted mother Michelle and something like
his birth mother and something like all the kind grandmothers and aunts who had
cared for him. The lullaby was a human prayer translated into Elvish something
mothers sang to babes to chase the night away.
A Mhuire na
nGrast, a Mhathair Mhic De,
Go gcuire tu ar
mo leas me,
Go sabhala tu
me ar gach uile olc
Go sabhala tu
me idir anam agus corp
Garda na
nAingeal os mo chionn
Dia romham agus
Dia liom
A Mhuire...
Justin realized
that he had worked the gag out of his mouth or the hagboys had knocked it loose
and he was singing the old song when one of the hagboys landed a lucky blow
that struck Justin on the mouth.
The blow shocked
his senses and brought him back to the here and now. Somehow, Justin knew
that his mother was close. He could feel the bond that he had with his mother
had survived becoming a different person and coming to a different universe.
Some bonds were stronger than space and time was immaterial to them. Justin
screamed a loud shriek of pain and anger.
In answer he heard
the battle cry of the Tuathe De torn from his father's throat, “Lámh Láidir
Abu!” Followed by his mother shouting, “I'm here, Justin! We're here!” The
voices were close, close enough to give Justin hope and he shouted back
heedless of the blows the hagboys landed or the hags' chanting a spell, “Mom,
Dad, I'm in here! Help, look out for the hag and her spawn!”
He could hear the
sounds of battle and all at once the hagboys left off with their "fun." Justin concentrated for just
one moment and snapped out two quick syllables the bag became dust and Justin
dropped to the floor banging his head on the hard-packed dirt. Through the haze
of pain and even in his dizzied state he could see the terrible scene. Hags and
their ogre allies were gathered in a cavern lit with a ruborous light. A low
fire burned down the middle of the cavern with spits for roasting their victims
whole across the coals. The room was filled with hagboys, great ogres, the rail
thin and shaggy-haired hags and others that had come to share in their
monstrous feast. Human witches, savage cannibal goblins, and other creatures
hid in the shadows waiting for scraps from the hags' board. Into the
blood-curdling tableau his family hammered their way through the entry guarded
by the monstrous brood.
His father had
swept into the room in a hurricane of flashing gold, tomahawk and knife ripping
through the ragged gibbering hagboys like a threshing machine heedless of the
streaming cuts from their iron claws. Blood streaming from a dozen wounds the
shear fury of Don's onslaught forced the hagboys to give way. Behind him
guarding his flanks was an apparition from a nightmare, the white furred
hellhound tore into hagboys, his eyes blazing red beacons of hellfire promising
death to all in reach of his blood stained fangs.
The great ogres
moved to intercept them and Scott launched himself into them like a living
cannonball. He hammered them back with his fists and feet shattering bones and
crushing flesh beneath his mallet-like fists. Sean followed Scott's lead and
covered his back with great sweeps of his steel-shafted flail bursting heads
and torsos in showers flesh and blood.
The true threat to
the hags and center of the battle was Michelle using her halberd to slash, stab
and batter her way through the hags themselves. She strode purposefully like an armored
juggernaut dealing death at each step forcing the horde to give way before her.
The Paladin stood like an avenging angel her glaive mired in blood and gore
from butt spike to blade tip and her armor dripping with grue.
The ogres and hags
were by far taller than Michelle but to Justin's eyes she loomed above them
promising death and retribution. One of the hags shrieked and took a frog-like
bound towards Justin whether to kill him or hold him to ransom he could never
say because Sean lifted his hand in a gesture as if to grasp an apple from a
tree his hand glowing with a golden light then brought his clenched fist
downward abruptly.
The hag's head
exploded in a gout of gore and bone. The chief of the coven stepped forward,
“You cannot save the boy he is -”, Michelle interrupted her with a gesture and
the hag gagged on her own words.
“Get away from him
you, Witch!” Michelle ground out her teeth bared in fury. Her words
amplified by the Power she channeled hit the unclean horde like a thunderclap.
The hags stunned, drew together away from the armored paladin.
Dog and Don
disappeared from the midst of the battered hagboys who were left gape mouthed
in wonder and they appeared next to Justin. Don held his dragon-horn bow in one
hand with an arrow nocked and helped Justin to his feet with his other. Dog,
his eyes redder than the blood dripping from his fangs stood on Justin's other
side and the young elf pulled himself up with one hand on the hellhound's
muscled shoulder.
“We have your
people in our hand,” the hag gloated, “they are trapped there. No magic can
escape from this cave!”
Michelle's laugh
rang out like a silver bell pushing back the darkness, “Trapped in here with you?”
She gestured with
her halberd like a queen with her scepter, “You are trapped in here with
us!” Her laughter was as glorious and terrible as sounding of an angel's war
horn. The hags looked around and realized that they were alone in the center of
the room. They alone had not fled to the far corners of the cavern or lay dead
in heaps scattered all around.
A voice began
chanting in the darkness raising fell shadows and the dragon-horn bow sang
twice sending two arrows slamming into the darkness. The voice was abruptly cut
off by the crack of an arrow driving into a skull.
“Just because I
haven't killed you yet, does not mean you're safe,” Don said in a
conversational tone towards the creatures cringing in the shadows. “Next one
that so much as thinks about a spell will get a visit from Dog here. And
he's not kind and gentle like me.”
The hellhound's
snarl was bones ground between millstones and his slaver smoked as it dripped
on the earthen floor of the cavern. Damned souls that had given themselves to
the Pit drew back from the beast that coursed ahead of the Wild Hunt.
The hags were
creatures of the shadows and the dark. Dangerous to the weak or unwary but here
they were in the position of a fox who had set himself for a hare and had
pounced on a lion.
Although steeped
in the depths of pre-human evil the guests at the interrupted feast were not
fools. Those that could ran, flapped, or slithered towards the exits. Those
that could not huddled back into the shadows in the corners of the vast cavern.
The hags hissed at the deserters baring their fearsome teeth and more terrible
eyes. Eyes filled with evil so foul they oozed the black pitchy essence of
congealed sin down their scored cheeks. When a hag bolder or foolhardier than
the rest raised her voice to curse those slinking from the light, Sean raised
his hand again and brought his mailed fist down. The hag's head cracked like an
egg and she dropped to the floor. The rest quieted hiding their eyes from the
brilliance shining from the paladin.
“I challenge you
paladin,” the chief of the coven stepped forward, “me for mine and you for
yours. If I win we go free and take the boy. If not, you take the boy and
leave. No magic, no powers just your pointy stick set against my own strength
of fang and claw.”
“What say you
paladin? Do you fear me?”
“I fear neither
your dark necromancies nor your iron nails. I warn you if I win I will cleanse
this cavern with the Light of God. It will burn into the deepest shadows and
there will be no escape.”
“So be it!” the
iron-taloned giantess shrieked and sprang forward. The hag's bound would have
shamed a starving wolf but Michelle met her with the golden hued blade cleaving
deep into the hag’s shoulder. It would have killed any human but the hag was
made of sterner stuff and began circling for an opening her right arm hanging
nearly to the ground useless. The paladin shifted her back foot to keep the
blade of the halberd angled at the hag's chest. The hag knew that this was no
time for feints or half measures it was all or nothing and she threw herself
forward onto the blade of the halberd. Transfixed by the blade the hag's long arm,
thin but tough as an old oak root reached Michelle with a rake of her claws
that scored a line down the side of her helm and drew blood from her face.
Michelle abruptly pulled forward with the hag's motion and jerked downward
freeing her blade and slamming the hag into the floor.
Before the monster
could right herself with her crippled arm Michelle stomped down crushing the
filthy shaggy head under her boot heel.
“Lig a bheith
ann solas Dé” she shouted her voice ringing throughout the cavern. Light
blasted out in a wave before her nearly solid in its force. It swept over the
monsters in the cavern like a tidal wave striking sandcastles destroying them
utterly into ash and dust blown away as by a gale.
Don turned to
Justin hugging his son tight before Don slid to the ground eyes rolling back in
his head. Justin, head swimming from his own battering saw his father covered
in slashes and ripping cuts from the claws of the hagboys.
“Mom, help!” he
gasped out before sliding to the floor himself. Sean reached the two first and
quickly shucked his mailed gauntlets to gently place a hand on each side of his
father's head. Gentle white light washed over Don and the wounds closed turning
to pink scars before fading into nothing. No mar was left on the archer's tanned
frame but he lay still his eyes closed.
“Don't worry,
Justin,” Sean said with a weary smile. “Dad's okay, he just lost a lot of blood
and nearly killed himself just by taking the shadow-path. He just needs rest.”
Michelle reached
out and placed her bare hand on Justin's cheek again the healing light glowed,
Michelle's more golden than Sean's but the effect was the same. Justin's head
cleared and his bruises disappeared. Justin shook his head, “I feel like I
could kick all of their ass – I mean rears by myself.”
“Not just yet,”
his mother laughed gently. “Let's get Dad back to the surface and make sure
everyone is okay up there.”
“We really are, Heroes
here,” Scott said wonderingly. “I mean I knew we had to be tough and the game
said we were heroes I just never thought what that meant for real.”
“Maybe we can stop
the Nazis.”
“We will,” Sean
replied as he helped Scott pick up his father making a litter from his own
cloak and spears discarded from the creatures that fled. “I don't expect it to
be this easy though.”
“Easy!” Andy
exclaimed, “This was easy? Granddad and Justin nearly died!”
Andy looked around
and asked Justin, “Where’s your dragon?”
Justin sighed, “I
don’t know. He wasn’t grabbed with me, I think he followed Dad into the
shadowlands. He didn’t come out.” Those nearby paused for a moment to reflect.
That little dragon could have been any one of them. Now he was lost in the
shadowlands a place he was unlikely to ever survive.
Sean got people
moving again speaking first to Andy. “We
will beat them because we have to,” Sean said to Andy. “You should have stayed
home but you are here now and there is no changing that. I don't want Dad
trying to travel the shadow-paths anyway for a while. They're dangerous at any
time and this area is a rats' warren of trails that lead to bad ends. I can
feel the lines of evil like a tangled ball of barbwire even without using
active spells to scan it. So until we get to the Chapterhouse you're sticking
with us.”
“Let's go,”
Michelle shepherded her family back to the surface where they found Allan,
Shandra, Katie and Angel standing or in the case of Allan leaning against a
stump amidst the remains of a terrible battle. Ogres and goblins were leavened
with more exotic monsters. Andy took a look at one of them in the bright
moonlight then looked quickly away his mind reeling.
Sean was made of
sterner stuff or perhaps his time in the Marines had tempered him somewhat,
“God's Mercy,” he said quietly. “Hey, is
that a vampire?” Sean asked Allan.
“Yeah, Katie broke
its attempt to control my mind and Angel well you can see what Angel did.” And
Sean could see the pair of arrows their shafts touching skewering the monster's
heart and another piercing its eye. The head lay severed a yard from the rail
thin body.
“There's no kill
like over-kill,” Sean said offering his fist to Angel who responded with a
weary bump.
“This was more
than I ever want to do again,” she said quietly, “but I guess we're going to
have to. It's not like the Nazis are going to stop because we ask them nicely.”
“Or even send them
a sternly worded letter,” Allan said with a wan smile.
“Hey, just ignore
what I did,” Shandra joked with her brother. She was standing leaning on her Dair
Maegair.
“Looks like you
did all right for yourself,” Sean nodded with approval at the giant carcass of
something with far too many heads and a shaggy bear like pelt. Shandra had
brought the barn-tall monster down with expert blade-work that much was obvious
to Sean's experienced eye.
His sister
answered him with a grin, “Looks like grandma's stories of trolls were true. I
wonder if it will turn to stone in the sunlight?”
“We won't be here
to see it,” Sean replied. He noticed that Katie was looking more shaken as the
events were over and she had time to think about what happened and what could
have happened.
“It's weird,”
Katie said in the same quiet tones, “my music has power, real power. That
thing,” she shuddered at the remains of the vampire, “I just knew that it would
take over our minds like we were puppets and I just knew what I had to
do to stop it. How could I know that?”
She
started crying, “It was trying to get into our heads and it was awful.
It was tearing at my mind. I feel filthy--it
was the worst!”
Her brother Scott
hugged her and patted her back. She was a head taller than her older brother
now but she clung to him as if she were in a raging river and he was the only
solid thing in the world.
“We need to get
away from here,” Sean said taking charge, “Andy, you and Dog round up the
horses. Dog, you do what he tells you, he's in charge.” The big hellhound
looked like a massive white dog now rather than part of the pack of the Wild
Hunt but he locked eyes briefly with Sean before giving an eerily human nod.
Michelle found
herself hugging her son Justin and murmuring comforting words to him. She
turned to Shandra and Allan, “Do you think you can get Dad up and around? We
need to get out of here as quickly as we can. I don't know what scavengers
might be attracted to this battle or who might think to bring back their 'big
brothers' to take care of us, so let's get moving.”
“He's not my
father, thank God,” Allan muttered but he quickly checked on his friend using
the same kind of healing powers that Sean had earlier. Shandra supported her
father's head as he sat up and Allan gave him a drink from his small canteen at
his belt.
Don's eyes
flickered open and he grinned at Allan, “We got our boy back. Is everyone else
okay?”
“Katie's shook up
but I think she'll come out of it. Even if she doesn't we're getting out of
here as soon as the horses are rounded up,” Allan replied, “Your girl did good.
'Little' Shandra kicked the hell out of the biggest mountain troll I've ever
heard of.”
“That's my girl!”
“It was nothing.”
Shandra replied.
“Oh, well forget
what I said,” Allan grinned, “a little girl with a willow switch could have
chased it off.”
With the help of
his daughter and his friend Don got to his feet. Through his laughter he
grinned at Allan, “That water is at least half whiskey.”
“At least,” Allan
agreed, “It puts hair on your chest. Which means you don't get any,” he added
to Shandra before doing a verbal rim-shot, “ba-dum bump.”
No comments:
Post a Comment